“I speak a little Italian because I’m studying it.” It’s a Ed Sheeran smiling and particularly talkative the one who appears at the fifth Live of X Factor 2021 on the occasion of the promotion of Equals, his latest album topping the charts in many countries around the world. With the white sweater with colorful brushstrokes on it and the guitar tightly in his hands, Sheeran takes us into his world with grace and simplicity. Singing, strumming, sweetly conquering. It does it alone, then with Casadilego, the winner of X Factor 2020 who has always had the desire to duet with him, and then again alone. Shortly after, the landlord Ludovico Tersigni asks him for the greatest inspiration of his work: Sheeran replies that it all starts with love for little Lyra, her 15-month-old daughter with whom he went through the quarantine that Covid forced him to a few months ago. He tells it with shining eyes, alternating a little English and a little Italian, much to the relief of Ludovico, a little in trouble with the language.

Meanwhile to animate the fifth Live, which tightens the neck of a funnel that will arrive at the end on December 9th, are the unreleased competitors, contained in the album X Factor Mixtape Vol. 2 published by Sony Music: Baltimore, the piece named after its author (Baltimore) in which the artist decides to get naked and share a piece of his life; Liver, an intimate piece rich in rhythmic and harmonic nuances presented by Erio; Don’t make me go the song written by Fellow which is also a hymn to memory and the inexorable passage of time; Without saliva by gIANMARIA, written by the singer himself; No Limit by Nika Paris, in which the girl invites everyone to live a free life; My bitter by Bengala Fire, who sign not only the text but also the music of the piece; and finally, Panic of Endrigo, who with this song decide to send a message and to give a caress to all the people who suffer from panic attacks.

Unfortunately two of them are forced to say goodbye to the race one step away from the semifinal: it is the Endrigo, surprisingly eliminated in the first heat by the casting vote of Hell Raton who preferred him Fellow, considered more focused on a musical level, and Nika Paris, the youngest competitor of this edition (16 years) as well as the last woman left a X Factor after the elimination of Vale LP. The judges’ decisions are becoming increasingly difficult (“What a shit choice”, is Manuelito’s comment at the time of the ballot), the tension is high but, on the other hand, the final is approaching and it is normal that all emotions in this phase are amplified. The semifinalists of X Factor 2021, that next week will duet with five great artists of Italian music, are therefore: Fellow, gIANAMARIA, Erio, and Bengal Fire and Baltimore.